Closed Heart
by Shardwing52
Summary: Tired of Masaya refusing their offers to hang out more in everyday life, the girls finally confront him about it. This leads to a disagreement, but is it really so, or is there more to this than meets the eye, and what will be done about it?


Disclaimer: I don't own Ao no Kanata.

"Why don't you ever hang out with us more!?" Madoka asked Masaya in frustration.

The girls often tried to invite him to do things with them or hang out at lunch, but he mostly refused. Sure he ate with them at times, but rarely did he really say much. However, now that he was playing with them in FC, that naturaly meant more time together. Unfortunately, Masaya still kept his distance and kept his typical professional coach attitude towards them. It was at this point the girls felt bothered by and hurt from it.

"Because I don't feel like it," Masaya said in the trailer.

"That's what you always say!" Mashiro exclaimed in annoyance.

"Right!" Misaki said while glaring at him.

"Coach," Asuka started more softly with a sad look. "Is there something about us you don't like?"

"It's not like that, I just like to do my own things in my free time," Masaya said while avoiding her gaze.

"Then try more with us, we're your friends you know!" Mashiro yelled.

"...Nonsense, what a bunch of nonsense!" Masaya said in a shaken tone before walking out of the trailer.

"We're not done here-" Madoka started, but Aoi intervened.

"Let him go!" Aoi said, stopping her from speaking any farther.

The girls wordlessly sat back in the trailer as his response cut their hearts. Sitting down, Asuka was the first to speak.

"Why? Why would Coach say that?" Asuka asked sadly.

"Right..." Misaki said with a sad look.

"So heartless, that guy!" Mashiro exclaimed with annoyance.

"How we feel about him isn't nonsense," Madoka said quietly. "Does he really dislike us?"

"Wrong," Aoi started as they faced her. "If that were the case, he would have responded in his usual uncaring tone. Did you not notice how he seemed upset when he replied back? Obviously he doesn't dislike it if he has strong feelings about you being his friends."

"But then-" Misaki started in frustration.

"Why did he dismiss your mention of being his friend?" Aoi finished for her. "Because he doesn't want to forge bonds in the first place."

"Eh?" Asuka asked.

"What do you mean?" Mashiro asked.

"Masaya went through a lot after he quit FC back as a child," Aoi started.

"I remember him telling me he played before when we were still forming the club," Madoka commented.

"A lot of people looked up to him as a promising child in FC before he quit," Aoi continued. "Being looked up to and expecting things of can put a lot of pressure on you. Many who once admired him and saw the promise he had, now shunned and made fun of him, which furthered his own despair. That's not all, the classmates who knew of his FC prowess also made fun of and treated him as the "former prodigy boy," as did his friends. Failing to live up to the expectations of others, overwhelmed by pressure and cold feet, scorned by many who once admired and looked up to you and your own despair of feeling weak and unworthy, that all piles up."

The girls sat in complete silence as she explained this.

"I see..." Misaki managed to get out.

"He had that kind of weight over him?" Asuka asked gently.

Aoi nodded. "So it's not that he hates you," she stated. "He's just very hesitant to form friendships with others because of the trauma he suffered after quitting FC. To put it simply, what he truly fears is becoming your friends and then being adandoned like before."

"Then what can we do?" Asuka asked.

"How about doing some things?" Aoi suggested. "Gestures go a long way you know."

"Sounds good," Misaki said with a more optimistic voice now.

"Really, Masaya-Senpai can be such a tsundere," Mashiro said confidently.

"Main heroine Madoka at the front line!" Madoka chimed with a sexy pose.

"Let's do this!" Asuka stated excitedly.

"Yeah!" they all yelled with fists pumped in the air as Aoi smiled.

Meanwhile, Masaya walked home as he recalled what they said to him.

"Friend, huh," Masaya muttered before his head pulsed. "Not now," Bitter memories surfaced up, the memories after he quit FC. "Shoot, why did they go and say something like that!?"

Shaking the stress off, he went home and plopped on his bed. He then thought back to being forced to have to attend school when he was younger. Since Aoi was a teacher there, he dreaded it. Constantly, she tried talking about their fun times together which just made him feel worse. The woman never could take the hint he wanted to stay away from the sport. However, Aoi always did her best to stop the kids from harassing him, but she couldn't always be around him, so he still was subjected to a lot of mockery and bullying. As he grew older, the harassment died out and he lived a peaceful life, but the trauma inflicted on him was already done. Still, Aoi always kept in somewhat touch with him. Despite his distance towards others, this was the one positive relationship that never died out.

"Sensei...what would you have done in my position today?" Masaya asked out loud quietly. "Well, there's no point thinking about it. Making friends is something I just can't do."

In the midst of the night, he fell into a dream. It was a white void, but in front of him was Asuka, Misaki, Mashiro and Madoka. He was going to run up to them, but their looks of disappointment stopped him. They then turned away from him and started walking away. Masaya desperately tried running after them, but they kept getting farther and farther away until they vanished from sight.

Masaya woke up, huffing. "A dream, huh?" Masaya said before laying back down with fatigue.

The next day, he woke up feeling better. But, he didn't enter class until the last second, for fear he was going to get pestered once more by them.

Lunch eventually came around, and Masaya got up to leave. Out of the blue, he felt an arm lock his, preventing him from leaving.

"Masaya~" Misaki sung.

"What are you doing?" Masaya asked.

"Until you be my friend, I'm not letting go!" Misaki stated with a big grin on her face.

"You can't be serious, let go," Masaya said, but Misaki held on tightly.

"Er, how is that going to make him become her friend?" Madoka asked with a sweat drop while Asuka laughed nervously.

After a bit of going against her grasp and laid back playful nature, Masaya would have no more.

"Enough!" Masaya raised his voice as he yanked his arm out of hers. "I'm leaving."

As he left, Misaki's cheerful face grew to a sad one before she concealed it.

"At least you tried," Madoka comforted her.

'Looks like things are back to normal,' Masaya thought with relief.

Walking by himself, he wondered outside. He then sat down and took out a sandwich to eat. Less than two minutes later, while he was eating, a voice called out near him.

"What?" Masaya asked as he held back a groan, only for him to find himself in a sudden firm hug by her. "A-Asuka?"

"Sorry," she started with a soft smile, to his confusion. "Sensei told us about what happened to you after you quit FC all those years ago," Masaya would not respond, which made Asuka visibly shake as tears formed in her eyes. "Please tell me, what do I have to do to become your friend?"

Masaya was thrown off by her emotional plea, but her question roused an intense feeling of fear and memories of the past.

"I..." he begun before getting up and turning away from her, and yet a sudden feeling of calmness overtook him as he thought about the girl before him.

When he thought about it, for a while after they first met, he would do things with her. The guy usually walks home alone and barely does anything with them outside FC, yet he couldn't deny he had felt drawn to Asuka ever since meeting her. He did things he normaly would never do. He even went so far as to offer to walk the girl home one time. In a way, he had changed to a degree because of her. In fact she was the reason he joined the club at all and aroused his FC passion. He looked back at Asuka who held a sad look, which cut him in the heart.

'Asuka...perhaps I've always felt something towards her, but, but!' Masaya thought as his fears came back. Walking away he sadly gave her the parting words "I'm sorry...I just can't do it."

"Coach..." Asuka muttered with tears and lowered her head.

Once he was out if sight, his heart ached badly. "Why does it hurt this much!?" he asked, clenching his heart and recalling Asuka's hurt expression. "And why did she have to look like that..."

After calming down, he waited till class resumed. After school, the group went to train. Asuka and Misaki were disheartened at being unable to move his heart, but they tried their best not to let it show and focused.

'How can we reach him?' Misaki thought sadly.

'I've always thought of Coach as my friend, but I had no idea he was carrying such a big burden and the effect it put on him,' Asuka thought. 'But, what can I do to open his heart?'

Mashiro eyed Masaya in the air with a sad look as he engaged Asuka and Misaki.

"They're pretty distracted," Madoka muttered.

"Yeah, probably Masaya is on their mind so much they can't focus as well," Aoi admitted. "If I was to guess, they tried to earn his trust and failed at it, otherwise they wouldn't be this down."

"No helping it, heroine Madoka will penetrate his layers without fail!" Madoka claimed with confidence and a pose.

"Hey, you're not going to do something foolish are you?" Aoi asked suspiciously.

"Oh don't be silly!" Madoka waved it off, but Aoi was not totally convinced. "You just leave it to me."

Eventually the three girls and Masaya came down.

"That's it for today, remember to maintain good health!" Masaya ordered to which he was given a 'yes' from them.

He then walked away, but Madoka got in front of him so fast he was startled.

"Wait, don't leave me behind!" Madoka declared confidently as he gave a 'huh?'. Getting up close to him and placing her arms around his neck, she continued, ignoring everyone's shocked reaction. "As your girlfriend, it isn't nice of you to do that~"

"Girlfriend!?" Masaya and the others yelled out, for even Aoi was thrown off.

"Hold it, since when have we ever been anything to each other!?" Masaya asked spasticaly as Madoka rested her head against his neck, earning a jolt from him.

"Are you saying you don't want to be with me?" Madoka whispered in his ear.

"Yes, not interested," Masaya said, moving her off of him and walking away.

"Rejected as heroine!" Madoka kneeled to the ground with an eyeless expression and tears.

"Now that makes three of us that have failed," Misaki said, having been told already by Asuka she tried and only partly moved him.

Seeing they had failed, Mashiro ran in Masaya's direction to take a crack now since she hadn't yet made an attempt. More than that, Mashiro truly wanted to reach him, for he was her friend too.

Meanwhile, Masaya was walking alone along a sidewalk.

"Seriously, what was that about?" Masaya asked to nobody. "Girlfriend? I think Madoka has lost it. Whatever, I don't have time to ponder on something so minor."

After a bit, Mashiro caught up to him. "Geez, I finally found you!" she said catching her breath.

'Why can't they just leave me alone!?' Masaya thought with frustration. "For what?"

"Senpai, can we go to my place to talk?" Mashiro asked with eyes pleading to him.

Masaya sighed. "Fine," he said.

So they went to the shop runned by her mother due to the fact her room was in it near the back.

"Oh, welcome Hinata!" Mashiro's mother greeted him.

"Hello," Masaya said politely.

"Anything I can get for you?" Mashiro's mother asked.

"Sure, a glass of water sounds nice," Masaya said, then waited for her to come back with some. "Why did you bring me here?"

"I-I, um...one second!" Mashiro said, grabbing her cat plushie and placing it in front of her face. "Basically, this girl wants to spend some time with you."

Masaya sweat dropped as he watched her poor attempt at altering her voice to make it look as if the plushie was talking.

"For what reason? This would be the time she would stick with Misaki," Masaya played her game.

"Because you're constantly refusing your friends attempts to grow closer to you," Mashiro made the plushie say. "Wouldn't it be better if you did more things with them besides just FC?"

Masaya grew quiet, as a sudden image of Asuka's tearful face came back. Closing his eyes, he got up.

"Tell Mashiro this, thank you, but I just don't know," he said, leaving.

"Masaya-Senpai..." Mashiro muttered while putting the plushie down.

Elsewhere, Asuka was with Madoka and Misaki, and appeared to be in deep thought. She then came to a stop.

"Asuka?" Misaki asked, curious about the abrupt stop.

With a serious expression full of resolve, Asuka ran away from her two friends.

"Where are you going?" Madoka tried to yell, but Asuka kept going.

The two could only blink with curiosity.

As Asuka ran, she recalled so many of the times they spent together.

'Coach, you were always there, having fun with us!' Asuka thought. 'I want us to have even more great memories. And I know he's lying to himself! He couldn't look me in the eyes when he refused. That's proof enough, that he hasn't completely given up on the idea of bonds with us. I want to reach him, to see him smile, to know more about him, to soar in the skies joyfully with him!'

A few minutes later, Masaya approached his house, but as he prepared to go in, he saw Asuka approach him.

"Coach, what have we been to you?" Asuka asked him quietly. "This whole time, did you just see us as an annoyance?"

"No, otherwise I would have never helped you all out," Masaya started. "But, to answer your question. What you and the others have been to me, is nice people I saw were in trouble and decided to help them out. I didn't join out of some feeling of friendship, I did it just to be nice and help you all out when you needed it."

"...Lie, you're lying!" Asuka raised her voice to his surprise. "If that's true, why are you looking away from me again?"

"That's..." Masaya trailed off.

"Would someone who doesn't want to be my friend, be looking guilty!?" Asuka yelled as her eyes watered. "Please, please open up to me, to us! Stop wrapping yourself in a wall!"

Masaya's head and heart pulsed intensely on seeing Asuka's hurt expression. Flashbacks of his past and the recent dream appeared before him, all slamming him at once. After a few seconds, Masaya snapped while holding his head with his hands.

"...S...Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Masaya yelled, shocking Asuka from his outburst and the tears in his eyes. "I can't befriend you and the others," his voice grew tearful along with his face turning sad. "I'm scared of everything happening again! I don't want to go through that anymore! That's why I..."

The next thing he knew, Asuka gently wrapped her arms around him and hugged him.

"I know, that you had a really tough time long ago, but you don't have to keep shouldering everything by yourself," Asuka said. "You can talk to us if you feel troubled, we want to be there for you, to ease any weight you have on your shoulders, and we want to be your friend. I promise, we will never abandon you. Such a thing has never even crossed our mind, and it never will. So let's get stronger, have fun together, and much more amazing things, Coach."

As he listen to her, he was struck with greater pain than anything he had ever experienced before. Hearing everything she said, he felt deep remorse for how he blew them off like it was nothing. His eyes widened as Asuka wiped away a tear from under his eye while smiling at him. This roused more emotions that he could not contain. Trembling, he kneeled down and hugged her.

"Y-yes!" Masaya managed to get out.

Asuka closed her eyes as he sobbed, and she rubbed the back of his head. It didn't matter to her how long he would sob, she wanted him to let it all out, the feelings he's kept piled up in himself for so long.

'Thank goodness,' Asuka thought with happy tears on seeing his trust being earned.

From this point on, Masaya's attitude towards the girls greatly improved. He very often opted to hang out with and do stuff with them, which further strengthened his trust in them and their overall bond. The first time, he approached them and apologized for dismissing their feelings. Now that the shell he was wrapped in was broken, his future looked brighter than it had ever been before.

Masaya and co right now were out in a grassy field looking at the stars above with a telescope. Madoka was the one looking in it, while Asuka, Masaya, Misaki and Mashiro sat together and chatted.

Afterwards, everyone huddled and took a picture together. Mashiro wrapped her arm around Masaya's. Misaki gave a grin to the camera, and Asuka had a hand on Masaya's shoulder as she sat next to him and smiled. Madoka then took the picture after hurrying herself near Misaki and giving a thumbs up while making a goofy expression.

As they relaxed in the field, Asuka placed a hand over Masaya's, which was on the grass, and he in turn strengthened his grip on hers.

THE END.


End file.
